HD Words

The Couch Potato has evolved.  He’s not that big messy slob we can depend on every night to watch the most impressive programs we produce for him.   He’s not a lock to watch that precious 16 minutes of every hour.  He just can’t be counted on to veg out and watch our 30 seconds pieces of art on a nightly basis.

So where is he?  Well , he’s still on the couch, but he’s much more sophisticated.  The TV is on.  But so is his laptop.  And he has 12 tabs open on his web browser.  His BlackBerry is on too, and it’s delivering e-mail, just in case he misses it on the laptop.   Oh, and the TV he’s watching is a 50″ plasma, so he’s using PIP.

This is the new Couch Potato.  It’s time to get re-introduced.  He’s not fat and lazy anymore.  He’s lean.  He’s busy.  He’s got so much going on that he burns 500 calories an hour because his senses are sweating to  keep pace with all the messages we send him.  He’s less like an enormous Idaho potato with a bunch of bacon, butter and sour cream – and more like a trim french fry without the grease.  He’s Couch Potato 2.0.

It’s harder than ever to get your ideas across to your customer.  Couch Potato 2.0 looks at 11-teen bajilion messages an hour.  Don’t worry, that’s a real number I just used.  It’s just so big you’ve never heard of it.   So the serious problem we have is getting our message across to a new Couch Potato who happens to be ADD.

It’s not enough to assume that your target Couch Potato is on You Tube, so he’s going to see your video.  You should let him know about the video by advertising it on Facebook, or traditional billboards, or radio, or TV, or other web applications, or any combination of those.  You need a multi-faceted approach to reach Couch Potato 2.0.  He needs a bunch of reminders because he’s got so much going on.  And I’m not suggesting that a You Tube video is right for everybody.  It’s not.  Your message should be niched to your niche.  In fact, each campaign you create should be micro-niched to grab the attention of the specific Couch Potato you want.  To cut through all the clutter, your messaging needs to be more direct than ever, and you will be mucho successful!

Shameless plug: To learn more about Couch Potato 2.0, come to the South Daktoa Communicator’s Network meeting on Wednesday, May 6th at 11:45 A.M. at the Ivy Room in Sioux Falls.

OK, so in a little over a week, I get to sit down with Alex Bogusky and moderate a bunch of chatter about the ad biz. That’s pretty darn cool. I know most good -intentioned homo sapiens probably don’t care who Alex is. But if you’ve been anywhere near the psychotic inner circle of the advertising world…everything and I mean EVERYTHING has centered around WWCP&B do? (That’s Crispin Porter and Bogusky, arguably the hottest agency of the past decade.)

I’m looking forward to it. Frankly he could be pompass and arrogant, sardonic, shy, witty, self-depricating, informative or some combination of all of the above. I don’t care. It will be a fun little feather in the VVI cap to sponsor this event. And let’s be honest, those of us in the biz do get a little caught up with our glamorous selves from time to time.  (Soap box statement that has little to do with this post!)

I am reminded of several summers ago when I sat by a pool at a wedding reception and had a beer with Billy McLaughlin. Outside the music world, the fingerstyle guitar player and composer was a name like any other. But to someone like me who followed his trade, it was the equivalent of meeting the President.

Had the President sold hundreds of thousands of new age records.

It’s more important than ever for companies to have a focused marketing strategy.  Even as  a communications company, this is a constant challenge for us.  I need skittles.  Right now.  The world is so rich with tasty tools and colorful opportunities, that it’s easy to get distracted from reaching your goal.   The other day, I realized that sometimes March is warm, and sometimes March is cold.  Strange.  Anyway…  Look!  A bluebird! Advertisers aren’t just chirping against other advertisers.  There’s a storm of messages on blogs, facebook, twitter and vimeo from all sorts of people.  Plus, I’ve got a TV and a radio on as I type this.  You know, our office bathroom situation is starting to chafe Toby.  Point is, there’s a bunch of tools out there, so you need to flush out a focused plan so your business stands out.  And if you don’t use video, your business will die.  Just kidding.  Guess how many tabs I have open in Firefox.   17.   That’s awesome!  So focus already!  It’s easy!  Wow, there are brownies in the confr

I was happy to come into work today to read some research that’s backed up what we’ve been predicting for months.  More and more people are watching online video that’s produced by professionals.  We’re constantly asked by clients to produce a YouTube video.  When we ask why, the answer is normally something like, “Well, it’s cheap”.  And they’re right.  You can produce a video and throw it on YouTube, and pray somebody watches it.  And it can be done cheaply.  And it can look cheap.  But is that really a good strategy?  Now, I’m not saying that YouTube isn’t a great online tool.  It’s fantastic. For some of our clients, it’s the perfect place to house videos.  But thinking about it on a large scale, people are only going to watch and connect with so many user-generated videos.  It is extremely important that online video, even the YouTube stuff, is done professionally.  It needs to look top notch.  People always crave quality.  You would never expect that a home movie about a trip to Africa would attract a higher audience than a video done by a professional documentary crew.  So why would you market your business that way?

So we’re two months into the new year.  Perfect time to talk about the new things VVI is working on, right?  Number 1 on the list is to be more strategic.  No, we’re not an ad agency, and we don’t want to be one.  But we owe it to our clients to think more about how the video we produce needs to be used to be effective.  What’s the best way to deliver the video?  There are so many options now.  Traditional TV, web, and mobile.  For web alone, there are so many gadgets, widgets and other hoo-ha’s out there that are easy to use.  But it is more important than ever to use the correct tools  to reach the right people.  That’s why we’re ready to point you in the right direction.  It’s one thing to produce a video that has an awesome message.  If it doesn’t meet the right audience, the message is pointless.  It’s like a tree falling in a forest with nobody around to hear it.  Did it make a sound?  We can debate that answer forever.  But if  a great video is played to a group of people wanting to hear something special, did it make a sound?  If it’s played for the wrong set of people the answer is no.  And there is no debate for that.

In an effort to keep up the latest and greatest in the advertising world, here’s a site that highlights some of the best spots the country has to offer! You can thank us later.

http://www.aicpshow.com/

So, we’re a little slow on the uptake, but now we have a blog. Couple that with our Facebook page and Twitter account and you can see that VVI is one cutting-edge video production company. Oh! You can’t forget about YouTube… The list just keeps on growing.